[4] The Convention expanded over time by admitting lesser burghs to its membership;[5] and by the 16th century had grown in influence to the extent that "it was listened to rather than directed by the government".

)[8][9] Representatives of these burghs met in advance of parliamentary sittings and communicated with the sovereign through the Court or through the Chamberlain who presided over its meetings in his function as the Crown’s chief fiscal officer.

[18] The reason appears to have been the King's need to restore damage done to the royal demesnes during the Wars of Independence,[19] It is not, however, clear whether the burgesses sat alongside the bishops and barons as a separate estate within the parliament itself.

[22] The burghs were consulted again at the parliament held in Stirling in 1405 when 50,000 merks had to be raised for "the King's fynance", to meet Henry VI's demand for "expenses incurred" by James I during his long imprisonment in England.

[19] The "Court of Four" continued to function until 1529, "the provost of the burgh where the meeting was held acting as president", though the Chamberlain still attended [25] (his involvement ended formally in 1532).

[26] The growing importance of the Convention can be traced through the reign of James III (r.1460-88) when the burghs contributed one fifth of the total sum of national taxation granted by Parliament.

[28] ...that Commissioners of all Burrowes baith south and north [of the Spey], sall convene and gadder together aince ilk yeare [annually] in the Burche of Inverkeithin [burgh of Inverkeithing], on the morning eftir Sanct James daie, with full commissioune, and thair to commune and treate upoune the weilfare of merchandise, the gude rule and statutis for the common profite of the Burrowis, and to provide for remeid upoune the skaith [damage] and injuries sustened, within the Burrowis, and quhat Burche that compeiris nocht [does not comply], the saides daie, be thair Commissaris, to paye to the costis of the Commissaris present, five pundis... [29]By the time more or less continuous[n 2] records begin in the middle of the 16th century (1552),[30] the Convention met regularly as a separate assembly to decide on a common policy for adoption by Parliament.

[31] Records from the regency of Mary of Guise suggest that the burghs themselves fixed the date and place of their conventions, a practice later confirmed by statute in 1581.

[10] In 1578 James VI authorised them to meet "foure tymes in the yeare for sic materis as concerns thair Estait, and in quhatever Burche it sal be thocht expedient.

It defined the rights, privileges and duties of Burghs; it regulated the merchandise, manufactures and shipping of the country, it exercised control over the Scottish merchants in France, Flanders and other countries in Europe, with which from time to time commercial relations existed; it sent commissioners to foreign powers, and to great commercial communities, entered into treaties with them, and established the staple trade of Scotland wherever this could be most advantageously done: it claimed the right, independently of the Crown, to nominate the Conservator [official charged with safeguarding the privileges of the Scottish staple in Flanders].